Chapter 2 Explaining Deviant Behavior Book Deviant Behavior

Chapter 2: Explaining Deviant Behavior Book: Deviant Behavior, 12 th Edition Author: Erich Goode

Getting Started: Key Questions • What do you think when you hear the term positivism? • Can deviance be understood scientifically? • Is behavior mainly hereditary? • Is deviant behavior mainly hereditary? Or • Is human behavior mainly learned? " • Is deviant behavior mainly learned? • What prevents most people from engaging in deviant acts?

Explaining Deviance through Positivism “is the application of the scientific method to the study of human behavior. ” Fundamental Assumptions of Positivism • Empiricism • Objectivism • Determinism

Empiricism • The world is real. • Humans can know the world through our five senses. • The senses can be enhanced by devices such as the microscope and the telescope. • What cannot be observed or verified by the senses is nonempirical and hence, outside the realm of empirical science.

Objectivism • Natural phenomena are objectively real. • Sociologists who adopt the natural science model believe that social phenomena possess that same quality of sharing an internal consistency. • A small common core of behaviors are considered deviant in societies everywhere. • In contrast to this common core, most of what's deviant the world over is highly variable. • Examples of behaviors that are deviant in some places but not others include blasphemy, non-standard religions, religious alienation, drinking alcohol, non-majority ethnicity, political dissent. • Positivists agree that criminal behavior is more than a simple violation of the law, and hence, can be explained.

Determinism • Deviant behavior can be explained in a cause-and-effect manner. • Certain discoverable social and material conditions cause deviant behavior. • Some positivistic theories of deviance are “micro” or individualistic. • Other positivistic theories of deviance are “macro, ” structure, or big-picture explanations.

Why Do They Do It? Some early, historical explanations of deviance are now considered invalid: • Demonic Possession • Atavisms – evolutionary throwbacks to a primitive stage of humanity.

Biological Theories Many biological perspectives and theories of deviances have been advanced (and later disproven). • “Physique selects crime” – Charles Goring (1913) • “Biologically inferior individuals” – Ernest Hooton (1939) • Criminal “super males” – genetic theory that claims men with “extra-Y” chromosome criminally inclined (1965 to late-1970 s). • Geneticists linked genes and violence in males from a single family (1990 s).

Free Will, Rational Choice, and Routine Activities Free will – free, rational, hedonistic people seek pleasure. • Hedonism – the desire to maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Routine Activities Theory – crime requires: • A motivated offender • A suitable target. • The absence of a capable guardian.

The Chicago School Social Disorganization Theory • Suggests that crime is localized in disorganized neighborhoods. • Disorganization decreases social cohesion. • Less social cohesion meant more deviance. • Transitory residency in zones of transition. • Heterogeneous neighborhoods unable to form community.

Anomie and Strain Anomie • Durkheim – normlessness, disruption of social order causes disorientation, confusion. • Merton – disjunctions between culturally defined goals and structurally available opportunities can inspire deviance. • Anomie Theory (a. k. a. Strain Theory) – Conventional and normative social goals.

Differential Association and Social Learning Theories Criminal behavior and deviance is learned. • Must be learned through face-toface interaction between close interpersonal relations. • Also imparted: knowledge, skills, values (definitions) favorable to crime or deviance.

Social Control Theory Multiple researchers; Travis Hirschi: • Control theories turn the causal equation around, from “Why do they do it? ” to “Why don’t they do it? ” • Most of us would commit deviance, if left to our own devices. • The absence of or ineffectiveness of social control causes deviance. • The relative absence of attachment to conventional values and conventional others are what causes deviant behavior.

Types of Social Control • Direct Control – actions taken to ensure that individuals refrain from engaging in deviance. • Stake in Conformity – investment in normative goals and means. • Internal Controls – adoption of internalized regulation with the goal of conformity.

Self-Control Theory A General Theory of Crime: (Gottfredson and Hirschi) • Low self-control causes deviant behavior. • In turn, the absence of or ineffective parental socialization causes low self -control, including impulsivity and indifference to the suffering of others, which in turn, causes deviant behavior. • Self-control is a critique of all other theories of crime and deviance that came before it. • Self control theory attempts to explain criminality or the tendency or propensity to commit crime.

Assumptions of Self-Control Theory The criminal is considered: • Unintelligent • Impulsive • Not planful (unplanning) The modal criminal act is considered: • Opportunistic • Low-profit • High-risk

Summary • In societies everywhere, anomalous behavior calls for an explanation. • The “Why do they do it? ” is the most common question people raise about deviant behavior. • In centuries past, societies made use of fanciful theories to account for deviant, most notably, demonology and, later, biological pathology. • The current sociological theories of deviance are etiological; they address the causal or “Why do they do it? ” question. The most important and enduring plausible sociological theories of deviant behavior were developed in the twentieth century; they include social disorganization, anomie, learning theory and differential association, and social control and self-control theories.